Google Maps Problem (Street View does not work)

As you or someone else mentioned above, it's also conceivable that a permissions problem has rendered some library in the Flash plug-in unavailable to your primary user. You might try repairing permissions using Disk Utility: one of those troubleshooting steps (kind of like resetting the PRAM) that is overused, but in this case might just have an effect.

P.S. It's Firefox, not Foxfire. Foxfire was a rural cookbook. 😉

I'm having the same problem, with the same set of symptoms and solutions

No problem with Safari and Flash in OS 10.5 (and, right before upgrading to SL, I was using the very latest, newest versions of 10.5 and Safari), but after upgrading to SL, Google Street View is black. This happened with the version of Flash (.23) that SL installed. I've since installed the newest version of Flash (.32) and the problem persists. As others have reported, if I log in as "Guest," Flash works and everything is OK.

BTW, I also went through the processes of removing cookies from Safari, emptying Safari's cache, and repairing disk permissions. Interestingly enough, all or almost all the permissions that were "repaired" on my drive had to do with the Flash plug-in.

This is obviously a problem with how Flash (either .23 or .32) interacts with Safari 4, all operating under SL, and specifically how they interact (conflict) when logging in as administrator rather than guest. The problems with Flash are not confined to just Google Street view, either.

I'll keep checking here to see if anyone comes up with any explanations or solutions -- but good to know that others are experiencing similar issues.

Wanted to add one more observation:
I just tried the "Log on with regular account" vs. "Log on as Guest," and then using Firefox as browser instead of Safari. Same deal: Flash worked as "Guest" (street view in Google was normal), didn't work under my user name (street view was black). So the problem is not confined to the Safari browser.
Bill

Yup, that's consistent with the observations posted earlier. It's also what leads us to think it's caused by a problem with the Flash plug-in, as it's one of the components shared among all installed browsers.

But Flash is ALSO shared among the main account and any guest accounts. The Flash plug-in goes in the Library folder on the main boot drive, not in a particular user's Library folder. So, if the Flash plug-in install was somehow corrupted, why is it only affecting users in the main account and NOT in the guest account?

And, like the others, I've tried it with the Flash that is installed with Snow Leopard, and the latest Flash available. I get the problem in Street View regardless of which version of Flash I am using.

Mark

{quote:title=Mark Booth2 wrote:}But Flash is ALSO shared among the main account and any guest accounts.{quote}

Given that the GUEST account starts with a blank slate each time you login, I think this points to a problem with the legacy "preferences" existing within the regular user account and SL -- that or a permission issue that does not apply to the GUEST account given its unique nature. But why would upgrading to SL create such a problem? Street View worked fine before SL.

In answer to earlier suggestions, running Disk Utility/Repair Permissions did show numerous FLASH (Shockwave Flash 10.0 r32) related permission errors; however, after repairing permissions, STREET VIEW still refuses to work from my regular account -- it only works from the GUEST account. Ugh.

For the record, these are installed plugins:

Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin 2.2.3
Shockwave Flash 10.0 r32
Garmin Communicator Plug-in Version 2.7.1.0
Java Plug-in for Cocoa
iPhotoPhotocast (iPhoto6)
QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.3

Don't try that yet.

The new spotlight lets you search within a specific folder:

Finder > Your User > Library
Command-f to search
Search for Google
Delete one preference at a time and test to see if street view works.
If it does not work, put it back, and delete the next preference.

.
.
.

until it works?

Roberto

Yes, I think Roberto has the right idea. I had also figured that the User vs. Guest issue would have something to do with the preferences located in the User Library, which "Guests" would/could not access.

When I looked in the User/Library/Preferences folder there was a file called "com.Google.Keystone.Agent.plist"

I removed this from the preferences folder and put it out in my desktop in a folder that I had created for temporarily removed files -- I was also in the process of cleaning out some other files, including some fonts that were giving me conflicts.

When I tried Google Street View, it worked! But, then, strangely, when I moved the com.Google... file back into the User/Library/Preferences folder, Street View still worked! (Does simply removing a .plist file and then moving it back change anything??)

Unfortunately, my procedure was not completely scientific, in the sense that I was not just removing one file at a time. I had also removed some fonts, including Arial, from my User/Library/Fonts folder (I needed to do that to get MSOffice to print correctly . . . there's a newer Arial.ttf font file in the System Font Library.) However, when I put Arial back into the User/Library/Fonts folder, Google street view also still worked.

So I'm not sure exactly what I did that made it work -- but it was a limited number of things. And, I might add that whatever I did, it also solved what I thought were other Flash-related problems in some websites besides Google.

So, I would try:
(1) Looking for and removing the com.Google....plist file in your User/Lib/Prefs folder, and
(2) If that doesn't work, check for font conflicts, including Arial (in your User/Lib/Fonts folder).

Bill

Hey, badcyclist, I'm glad you (both of us) solved the problem(s)! I'm still not sure whether it was fonts or preferences files that were the issue. (BTW, I only had one Google preference file in User/Lib/Prefs, and that was the "Keystone.Agent.plist" one).

Just to add some other stuff about conflicting fonts -- since you've recently looked at your fonts and realized that there were duplicates: Make sure to remove ALL older fonts (not just Arial) in your User/Lib/Fonts folder that are duplicates of newer ones in your System/Lib/Fonts folder (the newer ones there have the extension .ttf). If you use any version of MS Office/MS Word, you may have printing problems with specific documents, if you have older, duplicate fonts. This is a problem reported by many people using MS Office X, Office 2004, and even Office 2008. I've posted about it elsewhere, and that's the reason I was simultaneously doing the font cleanup.

Also note that the Font Book application will not necessarily find or resolve all font duplications, e.g. the problem with Arial didn't even show up for me in Font Book, although Arial Black did. You need to manually go into your User/Lib/Fonts folder and compare that with fonts in the System/Lib/Fonts folder, and then trash the duplicates in your User library. You should also check Application-specific font libraries. For example, you might find one in Applications/MSOffice/Fonts.

{quote:title=badcyclist wrote:}Then I did what Bill suggested. I went into the User/Library/Fonts folder. I isolated all of the Arial folders (there were four) and just moved them all to the trash. Street level then worked. I went back to Finder, restored all four Arial fonts, and Street level still worked.

{quote}

EUREKA! Font conflicts!

Who would have thunk it?

Since I wasn't able to locate any of the earlier referenced "google" preference files, I used FONT BOOK to analyze my fonts (paying particular attention to conflicts and the age of some of these fonts).

I had old ARIAL fonts (2001) sitting in my regular USER library/fonts, and some old Arial fonts (2006) in root /library/fonts folder. Apparently, Snow Leopard wants to install some newer fonts (July 16, 2009) during the upgrade.

So, for me, purging old copies of duplicate fonts (with Arial probably being the key issue) solved the Street View problem.

This makes sense. I'm betting the people who are not having this problem with Street View have nice orderly font collections by virtue of either clean installs, less legacy stuff, or they are just more fastidious in general.

Thank you to everyone who assisted in resolving this problem.

EUREKA is right!!! Removing ARIAL from the User/Library/Fonts was all it took to get Street View working for me again! And, while I was at it, I removed any fonts in User/Library/Fonts that were a duplicate of what was in Root/Library/Fonts. I also then used Font Book to resolve conflicts and delete a few other duplicates that were present.

When I was done, one other app that had, so far, not worked with Snow Leopard finally started working! That app is Epson's Print CD program to facilitate printing on printable CDs in (in my case) an Epson R200 printer!

Who would have thunk it! So, indirectly, Snow Leopard WAS the cause of the problem. The installer should do a better job of recognizing font conflicts and automatically deleting those fonts!

THANK YOU BILL and everyone for coming up with this fix!! EUREKA!! 🙂

Mark

OK, new problem apparently associated with what I did to fix Street View. Now that I've cleaned up my font duplicates and conflicts, the default font I'm getting in Safari is NOT the font I have chosen. I have Safari preferences set for Times 16 as the regular font and Courier 13 as the fixed width font. Yet, I do not get Times as my regular font anymore. The default font I am getting is a sans-serif font and Times is certainly not a sans-serif font.

This is only happening on my Mac Pro. On my MacBook Pro (where I have Snow Leopard installed too), it also shows that I have Times 16 and Courier 13 selected and those are the fonts being used.

I have confirmed that I have Times in my Root/Library/Fonts on both my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro. I do NOT have Times in my User/Library/Fonts on either computer. Yet, they two computers behave differently with regard to which default font is actually displayed.

I've attempted to select a completely different font, restart the computer and then change it back to Times 16 and restart the computer again. No luck fixing it.

If the MacBook Pro was behaving the same way as the Mac Pro, at least THAT would make sense. But the two are behaving differently with the exact same set up.

Any ideas?

Mark